Beyond Linux® From Scratch - Version 7.4

Chapter 1. Welcome to BLFS

Which Sections of the
Book Do I Want?

Unlike the Linux From Scratch book, BLFS isn't designed to be
followed in a linear manner. This is because LFS provides
instructions on how to create a base system which is capable of
turning into anything from a web server to a multimedia desktop
system. BLFS attempts to guide you in the process of going from the
base system to your intended destination. Choice is very much
involved.

Everyone who reads the book will want to read certain sections. The
Introduction part, which you are
currently reading, contains generic information. Especially take note
of the information in Chapter 2,
Important Information, as this contains comments about how to
unpack software, issues related to using different locales and
various other aspects which apply throughout the book.

Following these basic items, most people will want to at least browse
through the General
Libraries and Utilities part of the book. This part contains
information on many items which are prerequisites for other sections
of the book as well as some items (such as Chapter 13, Programming)
which are useful in their own right. Note that you don't have to
install all of these libraries and packages found in this part to
start with as each BLFS installation procedure tells you which
packages it depends upon so you can choose the program you want to
install and see what it needs.

Once you have dealt with these basics, you may wish to configure more
advanced network services. These are dealt with in the Servers part of the book. Those
wanting to build servers should find a good starting point there.
Note that this section also contains information on various database
packages.

The next parts of the book principally deal with desktop systems.
This portion of the book starts with a part talking about X and Window Managers.
This part also deals with some generic X-based libraries (Chapter 25, X
Libraries). After this, KDE and GNOME
are given their own parts which are followed by one on X Software.

The book then moves on to deal with Multimedia packages. Note that
many people may want to use the ALSA-1.0.27
instructions from this chapter quite near the start of their BLFS
journey; they are placed here simply because it is the most logical
place for them.

The final part of the main BLFS book deals with Printing,
Scanning and Typesetting. This is useful for most people with
desktop systems and even those who are creating mainly server systems
will find it useful.